Down the Alleys
by Huggerofplatypus
Summary: [Bolin & Mako] The alleys are cold, unforgiving, merciless—no place for two children.
1. How We Learned

**Disclaimer: **The Legend of Korra is owned by Mike Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. This story was written only for entertainment purposes and I have no intention of infringing upon any copyright.

**A/N: **This is my very first fic (of any kind), and critiques are very, very welcome. I also understand that this topic is probably very common in the LOK community, and any similarities between my story and other stories are entirely coincidental. (I actually haven't read any other stories…so there's that)

* * *

**Chapter 1: How We Learned**

_I don't think messengers are given enough credit for the work they do. No matter the amount of good news they send out, there is always the overbearing weight of bad news. Might get it tomorrow, might get it in a year, but they _will _get it and it's their job to tell its intended audience. And a lot of times…audiences are cruel._

„**"„"„"„"„"„"„"„"„"**

"Mako! Bolin! Dinner's ready!"

Aunty Em's voice reverberated through the floor beneath us, as shrill and loud as if she were standing in the room. Her voice had a tendency to defy the laws of physics.

We rushed downstairs to meet her in the kitchen, a large tub of hot noodle soup over the stove. Mako and I lined up with me in the front, as usual. Mako was nice like that—he always let me get dinner first. Aunty Em smiled at me as she poured my bowl, and I brought it to the table. Mako came to the table shortly after me, and Aunty Em came last.

For a while the only sound in the kitchen was my slurping. I finished my bowl and got myself another, and then another. Aunty Em wasn't surprised—this was generally what happened at dinner. Still, I felt she was looking at me strangely tonight.

"What?" I asked her, a mouth full of noodles. "Am I being too loud?"

"No, no, it's not that." She smiled a little. "You just look so much like your father."

"And Mako looks like Mom," I teased, waiting for Mako to get mad.

"Hey," he said, "that's not a bad thing." In a quiet voice, he said, "Mom's pretty."

"And so are you!" I grinned, soup dripping down my chin. "Pretty, pretty Mako. You and Mom should go out and get makeovers some time."

Mako growled, but thought it better to avoid pummeling me in front of Aunty Em. Then a devilish grin slid across his face. "Well at least I don't have Dad's big nose."

"MY NOSE IS _NOT_ BIG!" I yelled, feeling my nose to make sure it hadn't grown extra large over night.

"Calm down, you two," sighed Aunty Em. She wasn't one for yelling matches and food fights, or anything fun, for that matter. "Your parents will be home to pick you up in the morning and I don't want to tell them that I had to tie their children to opposite ends of the house."

I harrumphed, but settled on finishing my soup. I thanked Aunty Em for dinner and placed my bowl in the sink, running upstairs to Aunty Em's guest bedroom. That was where Mako and I slept whenever we stayed the night at Aunty Em's.

The guest bedroom was simple—a very large bed, a small closet, and a single window on the side. At the foot of the bed sat a chest. Normally Aunty Em would have kept it empty for her guests, but since we were the only guests she ever had, we just kept some spare toys in it, just in case. I pulled out my most prized possession: my fire ferret stuffed animal. Fire ferrets were my favorite animals in the whole wide world, and they were really talkative.

This fire ferret's name was Pabu. I lifted him up and made him dance, because Pabu liked to dance with me. I told him what I said to Mako and about how pretty he was, and Pabu laughed. He always laughed at my jokes—he was my best friend aside from Mako. But, then again, Mako's my brother, so I guess that kind of puts him in another category.

Mako entered the room right after I told Pabu that Aunty Em smelled like pickled fish.

"Hi Mako," I said, smiling from ear to ear. "Wanna play with me and Pabu?"

"Do I want to play with your stuffed animal? No thanks, Bo. I already planned to do nothing tonight, and I can't change my plans so suddenly."

"You only had to say 'no,'" I mumbled, making Pabu dance extra fast now that Mako was around. "Isn't that right, Pabu?" He nodded in agreement. I looked over at Mako, who was sitting on the bed, looking out the window at the moon. He looked sad all of a sudden. "Do you think Mom and Dad are done working for the day?" I asked him, hoping to get him out of his stupor.

Mako stopped to think a little. "Probably not. Dad usually works until the moon is highest in the sky, and that's not for at least another hour." And of course after he got off he would have to find Mom before heading to the trams for an hour-long trip back home. They had jobs so far away from the city because there wasn't much construction work to be done in such a jam-packed place like Republic City.

Mom was a welder and Dad was a support…guy. I couldn't think of the word, but he made big pillars of stone and Mom melted things together with her hands. Earth and fire—like a volcano.

It was nights like these that I missed them most. They worked so hard—I knew it because they came home almost too tired to eat dinner, let alone play with us. I knew they were doing what was best for our family, but that didn't change the fact that we didn't get to see them much.

The only times we would ever spend more than ten minutes with them in the morning or at night was during the summer, when Mom and Dad got breaks from work. For a couple weeks each year, Dad actually read us bedtime stories and Mom made us hot chocolate and cookies and tucked us in at night with Dad. They would kiss me on both of my cheeks at the same time—they knew it tickled a lot. Mako was happier during those weeks, too, going off with Mom to an empty courtyard for firebending lessons. He even got Dad to show him stuff about construction. Meanwhile, I would convince them to take me and Mako to the zoo, and I would get Dad to buy me candy. Those weeks were the best of my life.

I put Pabu back in the chest, telling him goodnight. Soon I was dressed in my 'jamies and in bed. Since Mom and Dad weren't around, Mako tucked me in, telling me a bedtime story about a fire ferret that could do circus tricks. When he got to the part about the ring of fire, I felt my eye lids drooping, and he took that as a cue to go to bed as well. I felt the usual moving about in the bed as he got comfortable for the night, and I closed my eyes. I heard the familiar shuffling of fabric, and I could tell Mako was rearranging Dad's scarf around his neck. I smiled. Mako liked that scarf way too much.

* * *

"Wake up, Bo."

My eyes fluttered open, looking for the dastardly villain who dared wake me up. Oh, it was just Mako. "What is it, Big Bro?" I yawned.

He looked at me seriously, no trace of humor. "Aunty Em says it's important. Let's go."

"But—"

"Let's _go_, Bolin!"

I shrank into myself. I didn't like this Mako. And where were Mom and Dad?

Mako grabbed my arm before I could think more about that subject and propelled me down the stairs to the kitchen, where Aunty Em sat. Normally displeasing to the eye, Aunty Em looked even more of a mess today. Her hair was lank and unwashed, her eyes drooping and wet, her frame visibly shaking. She was holding a mug of coffee, which was only utilized when things got rough, like the time someone stole Dad's Satomobile.

"Boys, you know I love you so much," she started out.

"What's wrong, Aunty Em?" Mako asked, his voice absent of the false braveness it usually held. "Where's Mom, and Dad?"

Aunty Em sniffed, dabbing at a tear oozing out of her eye. "Mako…"

"Where's Mom?" "Where's Dad?" we asked together, angry with Aunty Em. She was holding back something important.

"There's no easy way to tell you this—"

"_Just tell us already!_" yelled Mako, setting a potted plant on fire with sheer rage.

"Mako!" Aunty Em gave him a hard look, suddenly returning to her regular self. "What did your mother tell you about firebending?" She ran to fill a bucket with water and doused the plant. "You know you have to control your fire! I swear, if your mother were alive today she'd—"

Time came to a halt. I stopped breathing, stopped everything about myself. Mom was…_dead?_ Mom, whose life was filled to the brim with energy and excitement? How could this be? How could this have happened? A million more questions were popping up in my head, driving me insane. I only ceased this when I looked at Mako. His mouth was trembling, his eyes glazing over. I could see tears in his eyes through my own, tears that were never supposed to form.

Mako never cried. Ever.

"I didn't mean to tell you like that." It was Aunty Em, momentarily forgotten. "I just…" And she was crying too, great blobs of salt water falling from her face onto the floor.

"How?" I yelled at her. "How did she die? Where's Dad? Why isn't he here now, too?"

Something in Aunty Em's eyes wasn't right, the flame that was normally there was gone. She withered when I asked her about Dad, sinking in her chair.

"He's dead too?" Mako squeaked. His voice was broken by tears, his body racked with sobs. "_NO!_" he shouted, a blast of fire escaping his mouth. He ran out of the kitchen and into the street, and I wasn't more than two steps behind him.

Mako ran like a madman, pushing through carts and past people, giving them burns because his skin was so hot. He was fast, and I lost him a few times in the forest of legs of all the people in the street, so many giants exactly where I least needed them to be.

Aunty Em was right on my heels, huffing and puffing the whole time. We rounded a corner, in pursuit of Mako, but he was nowhere to be found. For a split second, my heart was punctured. Mom, Dad, and Mako, too? Why was my family so suddenly falling apart? _No_, I thought, _don't give up that easily. _I slit my eyes and kept running, searching. I was going to find my brother—he was the only family I had left.

The only way we managed to follow Mako was by searching for his footprints, which were seared into the hard dirt beneath us. His tracks led me through alleys and streets I'd never been to before, cold places where the sun never shined. In these alleys, the world was simple and narrow, a straight path to any one destination. So I continued on, fatigue setting in my limbs.

We found him eventually, sitting behind a dumpster, half of which was melted into a mass of lumpy steel. He was crying, his tears sizzling when they hit the ground. I ran to him and hugged him. I had missed him, though he'd only been gone for minutes. He hugged me back, controlling his firebending enough to avoid cooking me in his embrace. He was warm, and I sank my face into the puff around his neck that was Dad's scarf. "It smells like Dad," I said, my voice muffled by the fabric. I hoped it would hide my tears.

"I know, Bo. I know."

"Mako." Aunty Em had finally caught up to us. "Mako, come back to the house. It's nearly noon and we have things to talk about."

"I don't want to talk about anything," he said.

"Don't be silly. With your parents…gone, we need to talk about how we're going to go about things in the future."

Mako moved his arms away from me and stood up, glaring at Aunty Em. "Don't you _dare_ talk about our parents like that! Like they don't exist anymore!"

"I didn't mean th—"

"It doesn't matter!" A ring of fire surrounded us, scorching Aunty Em's leg. She yelped and fell back, her pain worn like a mask over her face. She hurt for us, I could understand that much. Mako continued: "Don't you ever bring them up again!"

"Mako," Aunty Em said, breathing heavily, "you have to come back to the house. You're not safe on your own, not out here. There are lots of people who will hurt you."

"I don't care!" The flames got higher, so high I couldn't even see Aunty Em through them. "We can survive. We _will _survive, without you or anyone else's help. Now _leave us alone!_"

"I am _not _disgracing your parents by letting you out into the streets by yourselves!" Aunty Em's face was flushed, emphasized even more so by Mako's fire. She was screaming at that point. "I was put in charge of your safety and I will not allow you two out of my sight! Not after what just happened!"

"Don't you get it?" Mako's face was the same shade of red as hers. "We don't need you anymore. You smell and you're mean and _you're not Mom or Dad!_"

"I know you're only talking out of anger—"

"_**LEAVE!**_" Mako smashed his hands together and the flames around us merged to form a single fireball in front of him, ready to disintegrate her.

Aunty Em seemed to stop fighting the inevitable and set her jaw. She nodded curtly to us both. When she spoke, her voice was deep and gruff. "Then be careful. Stay away from Triad territory, and keep each other within reach. If you need help for any reason, you know where to find me." Then she turned around and disappeared behind a corner, another part of our lives vanishing right before us.

The realization of what had just happened finally sank into my eight-year-old brain. We had just lost our parents and driven away the one person who would willingly care for us. We were on our own.

That was when I started to cry. We were _alone!_ Two kids! What were we going to do? What was _Mako_ going to do? I couldn't do anything by myself.

I looked at Mako, and I could tell he was exhausted. He let the fireball dissipate and sat down, panting. I sat down next to him. "What now, Big Bro?" I said, trying my best not to sound like a sniveling kid. Mako was always the man with the plan, the one who got me out of all sorts of trouble without having to think. He had to know what to do. He had to.

"I say we take a rest for a bit." He sighed. "I'm tired." On the last word, his voice broke. I could see tears rolling down his cheeks, cutting a path through the grime that had accumulated on his face while he had been running through the alleys. Seeing Mako like this—hurting so much—cut me deep. He didn't deserve this, and neither did I.

I put my arms around my brother, hoping to at least make him feel a little better. I knew it was usually his job to do that for me, but everything was so out of order I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be doing. He looked at me and smiled a tiny smile. It was enough to make me feel safe.

He scooted us over to the wall, next to the now-destroyed dumpster. He wrapped Dad's scarf around us both, and for a little bit, it seemed like we were with Dad, snuggled up next to him in his comfy chair, ready to hear a story. By now Mom would have come into Dad's study to give us some hot chocolate, because she was always thinking of things like that, things that we didn't know we needed. And now, out here with only Mako, we snuggled up together, brothers against the world.

The world was so cold.

As I thought about what story Dad would have read us, I leaned against Mako's too-tall shoulder, warming my ear against his skin; it reminded me that we still had some hope—we still had each other. Despite what had just happened, I was dozing off. I closed my eyes, dry for the first time in a long time. "Can you take the first watch?" I asked him, trying to bring back the times we used to play soldiers.

"Sure thing, Bo. Sleep for as long as you want." He looked at the afternoon sky, his eyes still wet with unshed tears. "I won't be able to sleep for a while, anyway. Dream about Mom for me, will ya?"

"Count on it," I mumbled. "Soldier Bolin, out."

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**A/N:**Hoped you liked the first chapter. Keep in mind that Bolin is 8 and Mako is probably 10. I wasn't sure about their ages when their parents died, and I felt this was a suitable age. I know a lot of Bolin's thought process is overly sophisticated (for an 8-year-old, at least), but I felt if I made the sentences shorter and more direct, the story wouldn't quite flow like I wanted it to.

Anyways, thanks for reading my first fic! Reviews are accepted with open arms, as I'm still learning and I usually write with music in the background (leads to funny sentence structures).

**Edit (1/20):** I did a very big revision of this piece, and I hope it'll be my last.


	2. Box of Buns

**Chapter 2: Box of Buns**

_Buns are themselves simple things, merely bread and filling and maybe some toppings. But they are so much more. They are warmth and kindness. They are like mothers who quiet noisy children and fathers who tell bedtime stories. They are comfort you can eat, friendships you can share. Buns are more than just bread, more than just things you bite and chew and swallow—they are much more important than that._

„"„"„"„"„"„"„"„"„"

"I'm hungry."

"I know, Bo. We're gonna get some food really soon."

The four o' clock heat was sweltering, worsened by the string of bakeries and restaurants lining the way down the street. We passed by each one in turn, our eyes visibly hungering for their contents. But we couldn't eat any of it—we had no money. So we kept moving on, looking for somewhere to 1) settle down and utilize as our home and 2) catch some food to eat.

I'd tried begging for some food. You would think a small child desperate for food would be noticed by the shopkeepers, but that was the thing about cities—everyone is a nobody. No one is noticeable, no one is cared for. Everyone lives their own life separate from all others, save for maybe a few family members. Not ideal circumstances for us.

I tripped as we passed by a bakery, skinning my knee on a rock in the pathway. I yelped as quietly as possible, trying so hard to show Mako that I wasn't a baby. I only cried a little, but it was enough to get the attention of both Mako and a lady in line at the shop. She looked at me with kind eyes, concern on her face.

"Oh dear. Are you hurt?" she asked me, her breath like warm bread. I nodded, a tiny bit. "Oh, you poor child. Is this your brother?" She indicated Mako, and I nodded again. She smiled then and led us in the shop.

Not willing to resist her hospitality, we made our way into the bakery, sitting on the small benches they had for waiting customers. After I sat down, the lady kneeled in front of me and pulled her bag off her shoulder. She stuck her hand inside and produced a bottle of water. "Now, let's get that scrape all cleaned up," she said, sounding so much like Mom.

The nice lady poured a little water directly on the cut, and I bit my lip. It stung, but she didn't seem to pay attention to my response. She wiped my cut with a soft, white, fabric-sort of thing, and then pulled out a small piece of bandage and applied an adhesive to its ends, sticking the clean part over my cut.

When she was finished, she smiled so brightly it seemed there was no place for darkness. "Lucky for you, I'm a nurse in training," she said with another smile, patting me on the cheek. She looked at us both and her tone changed. "Are you two hungry?"

"No," started Mako, "we're**—"**

"—_very _hungry!" I blurted out, my stomach speaking before my brain.

"What do you two like?"

"We don't—"

"—know exactly what we like," I said for Mako. "Sweet buns are a good choice, though. And some cookies?"

The pretty lady laughed quietly at my enthusiasm and promptly ordered four sweet buns along with several cookies. She handed us the pink box with the food and smiled that smile again.

"I have to go now, but take care, you two!" She waved us good-bye and left the shop without a backwards glance.

"She was really nice, wasn't she?" I said to Mako. I sat on the bench, swinging my feet like I always do when food is near. Mako gave me a look and I stopped asking him questions.

"We should find some place to stay for the night," he said to me, walking out of the bakery.

"But it's not even late!"

"I know, Bo, but if we wait until dark we might run into people we won't like." With that, we continued our way down the line of bakeries and restaurants, hot and tired but holding a pink box full of buns.

* * *

We walked to the uptown area, where shops were scarce and open space was a little more accessible. There was a large park at the end of the road, where Mako decided we would stay for the night. We got comfortable under a fat tree and opened up the pink box of buns.

I handed one to Mako and took one for myself, relishing its sweetness. I hadn't eaten since the night before, and the bun tasted like happiness at its best, coating my throat with something I almost forgot how to feel.

I leaned back onto the tree, closing my eyes and hearing the sounds of children playing all around me. It was almost evening, though, and lots of parents were wrangling in the kiddos for the night.

_Parents._ It hurt to think of the word.

I heard Mako back up to the tree, his body next to mine. He rearranged Dad's scarf and tucked his chin into it, exhaling for a long time. I took this as a cue that it was time to get some rest, so I tried my best to get comfortable.

I let swirling of leaves lull me to sleep, the soft wind kissing my skin. It was so nice—peaceful.

But something was wrong.

The wind was picking up now, blowing violently across the park. The grass bent so much that the fields were literally flattened. Leaves hit my face with such force I felt small cuts forming. Then the thunder came.

It roared like a lion-turtle, shaking the very ground we sat on. A sudden wave of rain cut through me, and after a few seconds my clothes were soaked. I shook Mako and he jumped awake, eyes moving fast to the sides. He felt his clothes and noticed they were wet, as was his face, then grabbed my arm. I took the pink box with my other arm and we ran to the housing area a little ways away.

Mako was too proud to go door to door asking for shelter, so we settled for the alleys. Dark and dank as they appeared, they were at least barriers to the rain. We found a few boxes in the dumpsters lining the alleys and created a makeshift living area. It wasn't much, but it was dry. Mako grabbed a metal garbage can full of trash and formed our own small fireplace, just like at Aunty Em's. We put our hands close to the fire and shivered. We hadn't planned for nights so cold.

* * *

**A/N: **This was a bit of a filler chapter, since I'm sort of drawing a blank as to how I want to continue the story. For those of you still with me, THANK YOU SO MUCH.

I hope you guys aren't getting too bored with these two chapters, because the next one's going to be pretty juicy.


	3. Alleyway Survival 101

**A/N: **Good news! I finally got over my writer's block. Hope you like it.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Alleyway Survival 101**

_Experience is the best teacher. It's not enough to read about the task at hand, or to listen to a seminar on how to conduct oneself during a given situation. You must live in the moment and learn in the moment, or you won't learn at all._

„**"„"„"„"„"„"„"„"„"**

Our first few nights in the alleys were rough. Mako "found" some blankets in a dumpster off on the far side of the city to use to block out the cold of the night, and I was getting better at begging.

Mako wouldn't approve of my panhandling. He thought we could survive by ourselves, with no help from others, but I was getting tired of being on our own. I didn't mind others' help, especially when they willingly gave it. So when Mako would tell me to stay put for an hour while he went off into other alleys to get whatever he needed to get, I would slink away and head to the houses around the way.

Surprisingly, the families that lived around the alleys were very well-off. Great spires shot up from their houses, front yards prim and pristine. They all had a preference of double doors, made of beautiful dark brown wood. Most impressive were their clothes, though—the men wore dapper suits and jackets, while the women were without fail dressed in summer dresses and donned jewelry around their necks during the day, always shiny and glittering.

I wasn't one for jewelry, but shiny things were another story. Silver door handles, ruby necklaces, and gold cufflinks were the only things I seemed to notice. I once found a thin silver chain on the ground, obviously part of a necklace. It was so light and flexible I imagined it was like a miniature river, rolling and falling and ever-changing. I pocketed the chain and moved from house to house, looking for other fallen treasures. The people around these parts didn't seem to notice when things went missing, and in a week I had found a pearl earring and a dislodged gemstone, black as night.

When I wasn't out finding treasure, I was at the families' doorsteps, eagerly begging for food and drink. Mako would have hated me for this, would have scolded me and yelled. But the fact of the matter was that I was good at it. The nice ladies and gentlemen always had some spare morsels for me, often a few fruits or a bowl of soup on good days. I could tell they pitied me, like one pities an injured kitten. The treatment didn't bother me, though—it was better than starving.

I would be back at our little living space before Mako could return from his trips, and he suspected nothing of me. He was usually too tired from the run to even ask questions—most of the time he just collapsed onto his blanket and rearranged Dad's scarf.

I kept the treasures very securely in my pocket, out of his sight. Sometimes I had to wrap the sharp ends in paper I found on the ground of the alleys. If I brought food back, I would share it with him. Of course he was constantly wondering where I got fruit in the alley, and I would simply reply by saying that I found it in a "dumpster." And he believed me. Silly Mako.

We were doing pretty well with ourselves by the end of our second week in the alleys. We had blankets and food stores, water in a bucket—everything necessary. Mako seemed to accept that I produced food out of thin air, with only a hint of hesitation before eating it. He even stopped trying to get some food on his daily excursions into the other alleys, appreciating whatever I brought back to our new home. He tended to return with blankets and spare clothes, maybe a pair of socks or gloves. I, in turn, accepted the fact that Mako never told me where he went while he was gone, thought that didn't stop my curiosity.

Was he really just running through alleys?

The thought came to life when one day Mako came back to our hideout with a cut on his cheek. It was raining that day, and he splashed through the puddles in the alley where the pavement was uneven. It was obvious he was in a rush.

"What happened?" I asked him immediately, dropping my apple. I ran up to him with a wet cloth (found it in a "dumpster") and dabbed at his cut, wary of his wincing.

"Just a fall, is all." Mako's tone indicated that the discussion was over, but I wasn't going to be dismissed like that.

"Mako, I'm not stupid. That cut wasn't from a fall—it was from a blade! What were you doing?"

"Keeping us alive," he said.

"What does _that _mean?"

"If you ask more questions," he said, "you might as well change your name to Mom."

I flinched from his retort. Bringing Mom into this—what was happening to Mako? He knew Mom and Dad were sore subjects for me, and I was sure two weeks weren't enough to ease the memory in his mind either. But I decided to ignore it, for the time being. "Mako, what do you mean, 'keeping us alive?'"

"I'm making money!" he yelled, a tongue of fire flicking out of his mouth as he did so. I took a step back, my skin almost burned. He looked at me and then his voice lost its edge. "A few spare yuans, alright?"

"By doing what? Fighting?"

"I wouldn't call it fighting…"

I squinted. "Well then what—a friendly game of catch with knives?" He shook his head, but otherwise didn't respond. "Great, Mako. Awesome! But what happens if you get hurt? How am I going to take care of us both without your help? I'm not strong enough!"

"Well you seem plenty _sneaky_ enough," he sneered, his cut looking more like a gash from this angle. "Let's stop keeping secrets between the two of us: What are _you _doing while I'm gone? I've checked and there aren't any dumpsters within miles of this place! Where are you getting all the food? And the other stuff?"

I looked down. My cheeks were getting warmer, my shame bubbling up. "I…I was at the houses earlier." Mako didn't say anything, but sported an unconvinced stare. "I was begging for food!" I yelled at him like he had yelled at me, angry for no reason.

"Bo, you don't need to! I can get food for us, and I don't need to beg to get it!"

"Yeah," I scoffed. "You only have to risk your life for food I can just ask for. And what's so bad about begging? We're _orphans_, Mako! Two stupid kids who have no home and who are only barely surviving! Why is it not okay for me to allow people to feel sad for me?"

"We're better than that," he said. "We can get what we need without relying on other people."

"That's funny," I said, choking out a harsh laugh, "because you're fighting for money to keep us alive. Tell me what's worse."

"I—"

"Well, well, well," came a voice from down the alley. We both jerked our heads to the side to see who the newcomer was. He sported long, blue-purple-violet-indigo hair, flipped over one of his eyes so it looked like he had half a face. His one revealed eye was outlined in black—he was wearing makeup. Because of the rain it was running down his face a bit, but he didn't seem to be bothered by that. The boy walked with a swagger that told me he wasn't from the alleys like me and Mako—he was confident and upright, probably the son of some well-to-dos. And he was smirking.

"Tahno," grumbled Mako. I was confused. Mako _knew _this guy?

"Mako!" Tahno said with a false smile and even falser happiness. "I knew I'd find you in the alleys like the rat you are."

"Hey!" I yelled at him. "Who are you calling a rat?"

Tahno's eye moved in my direction, and I couldn't help but cringe a bit. He looked like a one-eyed snake. He was taller than Mako (and older, by the looks of things), and he was intimidating. "Who's the pipsqueak?"

"None of your business," said Mako, putting an arm in front of me. "Why are you here?"

"Oh," the boy said, putting a hand over his mouth as if Mako's question were such a shocker. "Did you already forget we had some unfinished business, _Baby Mako?_"

Mako growled, a small glow of fire come out of his nose. "Not here, Tahno. Not now."

"What, are you afraid I'll hurt you like before? Run home to your little mousey pipsqueak and cry yourself to sleep?" Tahno put on a pouty face, the rain creating black tears from his makeup. There was a gleam of malice in his eye. "Well too bad. I'm here to finish that fight we had earlier. And this time, you're gonna come out with a lot more than just a cut."

Without warning, a huge surge of water pushed Mako backwards, thowing him into a puddle. My eyes widened. A waterbender!

Mako got on his feet within an instant and blasted a fireball at Tahno, forcing me to duck for my life. Tahno easily sidestepped it and threw a flying icicle at Mako's chest. Mako superheated the incoming projectile and stopped it in its tracks, evaporating into a cloud of steam. The cloud blocked the two from seeing each other, and soon more ice and fire were being thrown from every angle. I quickly got out of the way and stood far behind Mako, unable to take my eyes off my brother.

The steam lifted and the two were back at it, Mako barely keeping up with Tahno. The waterbender was agile and easily dodged Mako's blasts of fire, while Mako was having a hard time getting out of the way of Tahno's icicles. Then, in one split second, a shard of ice sliced through the underside of Mako's right arm, and his stance faltered as he attempted to hold his arm with the other. He screamed in pain. Tahno took this as a cue and threw a wave of water at Mako, blowing him off his feet and knocking him into me.

Together, we were washed aside like beached whale-fish, Tahno slowly closing in on us. He had a vicious grin on. "Whatcha gonna do now, Baby?"

Mako groaned, and anger flooded over me. I was going to kill this guy for hurting my big bro. My eyes locked onto Tahno, and I ran at him, screaming and punching the air. Tahno turned to the side and I ran past him, losing my balance and falling. Tahno laughed so hard he bent over, holding his stomach.

I could feel something in me snap. _He's __laughing at me?_ I would show him. I ran toward him again, screaming at the top of my lungs. Tahno looked up and pushed a blob of water at me so hard I hit the wall of the alley, dazed. Before I knew it, he had grabbed Mako by the collar and was spitting on his face, laughing the whole time through.

My nostrils flared, my eyes almost spewing fire themselves. _No one_ does that to my brother.

"_Get away from him!_" I yelled, stomping my foot in rage. To my utter disbelief, the earth beneath my foot cracked. The cracks split the ground as they headed toward Tahno. When they were close enough, a melon-sized rock burst out of the earth and smacked him in the stomach. He was thrown a few feet before collapsing against the other wall. It had all happened in less than a second.

Without missing a beat, I grabbed Mako's good arm and started running with him, urging him to get away from Tahno. He was slower than usual, but I didn't care. I needed to get him some help, and fast.

Big Bro gained some more consciousness as we ran, and he suddenly stared at me with eyes the size of the moon.

"Bo, did I really see what you just did back there?"

I was silent for a moment, labored breathing the only sound coming from my mouth. When at last we exited the alley, I responded.

"Yeah." I smiled despite how tired I was. "Guess I'm an earthbender."

* * *

**A/N: ***sighs with content* That was a fun chapter to write.


	4. Metamorphosis of a Stranger

**Chapter 4: Metamorphosis of a Stranger**

_It's amazing to think that there are so many people we interact with every day, each with lives and passions all their own. They have loves and goals and agendas, and the strangest part is that we don't know about any of them. Their entire lives are unknown to us, mysteries we don't really think about. All that makes them who they are is of no concern to us—they are strangers and we don't care, at least until we start to get to know them. Then the passions leak, the goals are unraveled and they become a little more to us. They become a face or a name, and we learn to recognize that—something we can use to identify them—and finally, _finally_, they become a person._

„"„"„"„"„"„"„"„"„"

We were running. So fast, splashing in the puddles and ignoring the mud. I almost wasn't thinking, just leading Mako to what I hoped was a safe place. Mako groaned and I could tell he didn't have much time before something worse happened to him, so I pushed him on, desperate.

The rain kept pouring, kept beating us down with its chill, clouding my vision. We were running so fast that we didn't bother looking at our surroundings. We could only see this alley and that alley and when the two would end. That course of action ended when we turned a corner and I felt my body smack into something pointy and soggy. I heard a yelp and a thump as the pointy-soggy thing fell back onto the wet ground. Staring a little more closely, I could make out the figure holding her head, groaning.

"Watch where you're going, jerks!" she yelled, rubbing her back. "I could've broken something!"

"Sorrysorrysorry," I blurted out. This was just what I needed—to be running into people and wasting my time when Mako needed some serious medical attention. Then I got an idea. "Hey, we need help. Do you know any doctors around?"

The girl looked at me like I was some sort of platypus-bear. "What for?" Then she saw Mako, who was bleeding and sagging under me at that point. She gasped. "Okay, okay, I know a place. Follow me."

She led us through yet more alleyways, and it felt like the whole city had turned into a very unfriendly maze. "Quit slowing down so much!"

"Maybe if…you'd…help…me!" I managed, barely getting Mako to stand. The girl turned around and grabbed Mako's right side, but he cried out when she touched his cut. He lost his grip on me and fell to the ground. His eyes were hazing over and his body began to tremble.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no," said the girl, eyes flicking left and right. "Okay, I'm gonna try something." She breathed in and exhaled slowly. She looked to the sky, letting the rain wash over her. "I can do this," she whispered, almost to herself.

She moved her hands around in a circular motion, capturing a stream of water from the falling rain. My eyes widened in shock. _How many waterbenders are in this crazy city?_ She moved the water around Mako's cut, making him cringe and fidget. "Hold on a little longer," she said to him. Then the weirdest thing happened: the water started to _glow_.

Mako seemed just as surprised as me, but the glowing water seemed to relax him and he closed his eyes and smiled.

"What are you doing to him?" I asked, my eyes transfixed on the glow in the darkness.

"Healing," she said detachedly, intent on working on Mako. "I'm not very good, but this should hold him over until we get to my friend."

The water glowed and swirled around Mako's injury, and I could actually see the cut getting smaller as she worked. Eventually she gave an exasperated release of air, letting the water drop to the ground, clear and not glowing.

"That was awesome!" I said, hugging the girl. "Thank you!"

She shrugged me off, looking at Mako like he had broken all four of his limbs. "We gotta move him, still. I only fixed a small part of that cut."

"Really?" asked Mako, now fully conscious. He rubbed his arm thoughtfully, poking at where the cut used to be. "It doesn't even hurt anymore."

The girl seemed even more surprised than me. "Are you sure? I only learned how to heal a few days ago."

"I'm pretty sure I know when I'm working with one functioning arm and when I'm working with two functioning arms." Mako smiled at her. "You must be a fast learner. Thank you for your help."

"Oh," the girl blushed, "it was no biggie."

"No biggie? You just saved my life!"

The girl offered a little smile. "Well, it was nice…meeting you. But I gotta go now." She turned and started to leave.

"Wait!" I yelled back at her, realizing something. She turned around and tilted her head, hair falling like a curtain. "We never learned your name."

"Lya," she said loudly. "And yours?"

"Mako's my brother, and I'm Bolin."

"It was nice meeting you two, Mako and Bolin." She started running off again, hair flying behind her.

"Thank you, Lya," I said quietly. She would never understand how much I meant that.

* * *

**A/N:** This chapter's a bit on the short side, but it's finals week and I wanted to at least give my readers a little something for the next few days. Not sure when I'll be able to update next, but I hope to get another chapter in by the end of the week.

Big shout out to bs13 and GermanShepherd for reviewing my story and for being so encouraging (like wow people actually like my writing). Loved the reviews.

Thanks also owed to I'm Nobody's Girlfriend for the follow. You've put me up to a whopping 4 followers! [Seriously, this is really exciting for me]. I can almost feel the fame.


	5. HQ

**Chapter 5: HQ**

_It's hard to stay mad at loved ones. They mess up and make us angry, but what can we do? We're stuck with them for the rest of our lives, so we might as well get along with them as best we can. There's no point in hating a person you'll see tomorrow._

„"„"„"„"„"„"„"„"„"

Mako was good as new the next morning. We found a bridge that was homey enough on the underside. The nice man who was already living down there didn't mind our company at all. He said his name was Gommu, and he was especially open to Mako's firebending (apparently cooked rat is a delicacy among the homeless).

"Sure you don't want some of this?" he asked us, waving the half-eaten rat on a stick.

"No thanks," came our response, quick as lightning. We looked at each other and collectively shuddered. The man was happy and good-natured, but I still couldn't stomach the fact that some people ate like him every day—or at least tried to.

"Suit yourselves." Gommu munched noisily on the rat, all the time his eyes darting back and forth between the two of us. When he finished with his meal, he threw the rat-kabob into the river behind us and looked at us, eyebrows drawn into the center of his face. "So," he started, "what brings you two to the humble abode of the homeless?"

When we showed no intention of responding, he eyes us a little more seriously. "Oh," he whispered, all jolliness lost. "I see. You lost your parents."

Mako flinched. "How did you—"

"Wasn't hard," Gommu said, laying down and sighing. "I'm good at reading people. It's a handy skill when you need to know where your next meal is coming from. Also it helps with avoiding the police." He stopped, closing his eyes. "But usually kids who lose their parents have somewhere to go; an aunt, an uncle, someone. So what's different about you two? Either you don't have any folks in the city, or…" Gommu left the sentence open to us, hoping for us to fill in.

"It's complicated," was all Mako could muster.

"Alright, close enough. No need for me to dig. We're all friends here anyway, right?"

He opened his eyes, sat up, and smiled a bit. I returned it. "Right."

"How long have you boys been on your own?"

"A couple weeks." Right after I said it, it surprised me how we'd survived so long without any supervision. Maybe Mako was right: we could take care of ourselves.

"Then you must be doing pretty well," Gommu said, grinning wide. "Most kids try it for a few days before they let the orphanages pick them up."

"You seem to know a lot about orphans," Mako commented.

"I've been homeless for twenty years. You learn a few things along the way, trust me. Anyway, what made you pick this bridge all of a sudden, if you've been out for a few weeks? Don't you have somewhere to go? A hideout, maybe, or a box?"

"We did," I said. "Then things got messy."

Gommu nodded and blew out a puff of air. "Tough out here, isn't it?" Mako and I nodded in unison. "But at least you guys know how to keep each other alive. It's good that you have each other."

I noticed then that Gommu's smile was gone, replaced by a slight grimace. His eyes were glazing over, as if he was reliving a memory. "Gommu?" I said, afraid we'd lost him.

He perked up immediately and smiled, blowing it off. "That's my name."

"Did you…lose someone too?"

Gommu sighed. "You could say that." A fresh tear rolled down his face, clinging to his chin for a moment before it fell to the grass below. "But that was a long time ago…"

An uncomfortable silence settled between us, neither of us willing to push or pull the other. "Oh," was all I could think of. "I'm sorry."

Gommu hung his head, obviously trying hard not to cry in front of us. "Thanks, little man."

"No, thank _you_." Mako got up and rearranged Dad's scarf around his neck. "We wouldn't have made the night if you hadn't let us share the bridge."

"It's not mine to share," said Gommu with a hint of mischief in his voice. "The police try to tell me that every week." And just like that, all the grief and pain that he'd been showing us for that brief moment disappeared, replaced by his normally peppy self.

"We gotta go," said Mako, more to me than Gommu. "Maybe we'll see you again."

Gommu shook his head, his lips upturned. "I sincerely hope not."

* * *

"Where are we going?" I asked Mako for the fifth time.

"Somewhere we need to go."

I pouted. It was just like Mako to make us leave a perfectly nice place in exchange for "somewhere we need to go." He never told me anything like that.

Mako led me down a few alleys, and at first I thought we were going back to rebuild our little home from before the fight with Tahno. But the trip took long for it to be that. I noticed the alleyways were getting grungier (for alleyway standards), covered in scraps of paper long forgotten and mysterious grey substances on the walls. It got worse when we started to get close to wherever Mako was taking us—I saw some blood stains and small teeth littered across the ground, haphazard gouges in the earth beneath us. Then I heard the voices.

Around a tight corner I heard cheering, loud chants and feet pounding the ground. The earth under my feet was almost vibrating with the force, the energy blasting from the right. As we turned and made our way nearer to the commotion, Mako put an arm on my shoulder and stopped me.

"Where are we?" I asked him, taking this pause to get the question out of my mind.

"I wanted to show you something," Mako said, his mouth a straight line. "I wanted to show you what I did when I left you every day before Tahno found us."

Suddenly the voices and noise made sense. "You mean...we're at the place you _fight_?"

"The place I _fought_," corrected Mako. "I promise you, I'll never do this kind of stuff again. But I felt you deserved to know the truth—I owe you at least that much."

Grudgingly now, I walked on through the straight path. We eventually reached a solid door with a square for peering at the outside. The square was removed and a menacing pair of eyes filled the space. They moved to Mako immediately, recognition sparking, until they saw me. The eyes squinted, and asked, "Who approaches?"

"Aww, come on, Zanu," Mako said, clearly familiar with this person. "You know me, and you know I don't make trouble."

"True, but who's the little one?"

"I am _not _little," I said, starting to dislike this Zanu person.

"He's my brother," explained Mako, rolling his eyes at the eyes in the door. "Can't you tell?"

Zanu stopped and examined us a little more closely, taking his time. After a minute, the space in the door was replaced by the square. I could tell bolts and levers were being moved, and soon the door swung open slowly, revealing a thin little boy holding a stool, his eyes the identical to the ones in the door. Somehow I had expected him to be a bit…taller.

"This one time," said Zanu, holding up a finger to Mako. "He better not make me regret this decision."

"You have nothing to worry about, Zanu," Mako said, walking past him with me in tow. "Welcome to HQ, Bo."

We kept walking, and my surroundings were becoming more and more clear. The noise was much louder inside the door than outside, and in the dim light I could see lots of people—_kids_—milling about laughing and stomping and having a generally good time. The strange thing was that none of them seemed to be much older than Mako. Stranger still was the fact that most of them looked at Mako and immediately put their eyes down, as if they were scared to look at him. I made a mental note to ask Mako about this later, but for now it seemed a good thing for us.

Mako led me to the very back of the enormous room, where I could hear some extra loud voices in the mix. Many of them were egging others on, like a prize fight. _Of course_, I thought to myself, _it really _is _a prize fight. Just like what Mako was doing._

I couldn't help my curiosity, though, when a small gap opened up in the circle of kids. I rushed to the space and made sure I was there to stay. From this vantage point I could see everything—two boys, clearly my age, slugging each other like no tomorrow. My eyes widened when one twisted the other's arm and threw him to the ground with a loud _smack._ The some of the crowd cheered and money was passed around the ring, meanwhile the boy on the floor was paid no attention.

"Moving on to round 2!" said the victor, a huge, crazed smile on his face. He ran out of the circle waving his arms above his head.

"Um, should someone help him?" I asked Mako, pointing at the boy on the floor.

"There are people for that."

I only had time to wrinkle my brow before three guys pushed through the circle, screaming "Medics, coming through!" I gaped at them—each had hands that were covered in bright, glowing water. They moved swiftly to the boy on the ground and put their hands where the injuries seemed most severe. He sighed, smiling as the medics did their work. Within minutes he was up and laughing with the rest of the boys.

"Were they—"

Mako nodded his head. "Yeah, they were healing him."

This was too much for me to handle. "How many of them are there here?"

"Roughly ten, maybe fifteen. Generally depends on the day."

That was a lot of waterbenders. "So…how many _people _come here?"

"In a day? Probably hundreds." Mako looked at me, noticed my expression, and continued: "Republic City has way more kids out on the streets than you would think."

"All these kids are like us? Where do they stay?"

Mako sighed, obviously tired of my questions. But he had made it a point to tell me the truth about all this, and I expected that much. "Some stay here, others temporarily live in orphanages, and the rest make do in the streets and alleys. Well, most do, really."

"Mako," I started, concerned with yet one more piece of information, "why is everyone afraid of you here?"

A few moments passed before Mako chose to speak. "Uh—"

"Mako!" came a voice from behind us. We twisted around to face this person, and immediately I noticed how tall he was. He sported an afro of frizzy hair and a smile almost as large as his frame. His skin was covered in faded lines and tiny scratch marks, branding him as a fighter. "You never told me you were going to leave us for two whole days! It's so unlike you."

My brother shrugged sheepishly. "Things came up, Seung. And Tahno—"

"Oh, I heard!" the tall boy answered, his eyes widening. "You have to tell us all about it! Mohkey said he found Tahno crumpled in an alley, and said Tahno blamed you for it. Served him right, that snake. But more of that later. Come with me—I have someone I'd like you to meet."

Seung led us over the corner of the massive room opposite the fighting ring, where a wooden bar was stationed. A boy my age was serving up strangely colored liquids to those sitting at the front, laughing and dancing while shaking a weird metal container. "Mohkey!" called out Seung, waving his hand. Mohkey waved back, accidentally splashing some of his concoction on the bar's flat surface. He immediately bent the liquid back into the metal container and continued shaking it. I held my head in both hands—this whole bending congregation was going to take some effort to get used to. It seemed like everyone was a bender now.

"What brings you to my corner, Seung?" Mohkey said with a lopsided grin. "Itchin' for a liver-buster?"

"Nah," quipped Seung. "I'm here to see Lya."

* * *

**A/N:** Geez, this one took me a while (I had finals this week). Just so you know, Gommu is the same homeless man Korra meets in the park in the actual show. Thanks for staying with me thus far, and I hope to update more often from now on.


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